Our week: part 2 - not so good

Well, we discoverd a hole in the ridge tiles. From the ground it looked exactly like an object had been chucked down from the sky and landed slap on our roof making a fabulous cricket ball sized hole! Once the roofer got up his ladder (brave chap) and checked it out (and taken photos for evidence - what would we do without mobile phone cameras) it was obvious that the ridge tile had been broken clean in two some time ago but had simply been pushed back together with the recent high winds moving them apart again. He promised a written quotation for fixing it, as well as for replacing other loosening ridge tiles and for replacing all the ridge tiles. Haven't heard a dicky bird since - typical - I even gave him some free eggs for his time (actually I kind of forced him to take them, we're over run with eggs at the mo).

Something keeps tripping our electricity in the house. The neighbours must be getting fed up with me popping round asking if their power has gone off too! Initially it seemed the kettle was doing the dirty deed. Every time I turned it on the whole power just turned off (with the downstairs circuit being the culprit). I even tried it upstairs but the same happened again. Have been boiling water in a saucepan since - amazingly fast actually - considering doing without an electric kettle (it's the one appliance we seem to have a bit of a problem with, this kettle is third one we've gone through in about a year!). Having thought we'd sourced the problem, the power decided to switch off again yesterday just as I turned the oven on to put the roast in. Strangely, none of the switches had turned to "off" - very weird! Neighbour suggested we flick all the switches off, and then back on, this worked as it tripped the downstairs circuit so we knew it was something probably in the kitchen again (but not the cooker). Paul thought he heard electrical fizzing from the circuit board and could smell faint burning. I went into serious panic mode and immediately called the electric guy - unfortunately he can't make it until tomorrow evening. Surprised I slept last night - pretty paranoid that the house will burn down before he makes it here! Haven't heard anymore fizzing noises and certainly no more burning smells and the electricity hasn't tripped (yet) today so I've calmed a little. Hoping it's nothing too expensive, just a faulty switch/wire or something.

Allie's face swelled up into a rather small balloon! The vet's assistance announced he looked like the cartoon Beast from "Beauty and the Beast" - poor chap. We discovered a scap on the top of his head and assumed he'd been fighting but Allie decided he certainly wasn't having a number of people fuss over him and wouldn't let the vet take a proper look. Instead he got an antibiotic jab and a bottle of meds for the pricely sum of £78 (again, had the same bill for Allie not so long ago when he had the nasty cough). Seems to have done the trick. The next day I managed to take the scab off the top of his head (when bathing it) and release all the gunk. The hole it left was truly unbelievable - but Allie was instantly relieved.

To add to my worries, this has finally burst on to the scene. I must admit since HEing I take each day as it comes, perhaps some would say I bury my head in the sand and not fight issues that I should be fighting. I'm a great believer in sitting back and seeing what'll happen and I'm also fully aware that this could be the worst thing to do! I'm hoping that any changes in law and what-have-you will take a long time to come into force, and I know that at some point this will affect us. Deep down I'm hoping it won't be as bad as I'm fearing, reading and hearing. There's loads of literature about it all on the "net" in various forms, but I particularly liked this article posted on our local forum. I was published in Friday's Times by a 15 year old. I intend to read all the comments in more detail but from what I have briefly seen, it made interesting and thought provoking reading.